Clinical Presentation and Laboratory Diagnostic Work-Up of a Horse with Tick-Borne Encephalitis in Switzerland

Tick-borne encephalitis is an important viral tick-borne zoonosis in Europe and Asia. The disease is induced by tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). This report describes a 16-year-old Warmblood gelding presenting with sudden onset of lethargy, ataxia, and muscle fasciculations on the nostrils, the lips, and the eye lids as the most important clinical findings. The horse further had a mild facial nerve paralysis with drooping of the right upper and lower lip. Diagnosis was based on paired serum samples using TBEV-ELISAs revealing high serum IgM in the first sample with normal IgM in the second sample and an increase in serum IgG and neutralizing antibodies, indicating acute and recent infection. TBEV was confirmed by a virus-neutralization test, revealing a fivefold increase in antibodies 32 days after of the onset of clinical signs. Although the specific PCR on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was negative, TBEV-specific IgG and IgM were identified in the CSF of the horse. Treatment consisted of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative treatment and the horse recovered with a mild drooping of the right nostril as the only remaining clinical sign. TBEV infection is a potential differential diagnosis of neurological disease in horses living in endemic areas and this is the first report to describe the diagnostic criteria in a horse as recommended in humans with suspected TBEV infection

Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of blood culture isolates from foals in Switzerland.

INTRODUCTION We report blood culture results of 43 foals admitted to an equine hospital for medical or surgical disorders and determine minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of different antibiotics. Eleven foals had a positive blood culture result despite prior administration of antibiotics in 10 of these animals. MIC values above EUCAST and/or CLSI breakpoints were identified in coagulase-negative staphylococci, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Enterococcus faecium. Gram-negative isolates were less frequently identified and did not appear to exhibit increased MIC values. This study shows that bloodstream infections in foals in Switzerland are caused by diverse bacteria including Gram-positive bacteria which exhibit resistance to several classes of antibiotics

Disfluences dans le vieillissement "normal" et la maladie d'Alzheimer : indices segmentaux, suprasegmentaux et gestuels

International audienceThe aim of the study is to analyze and compare multimodal language productions by 10 persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) matched to 10 controls. First, different measures at the segmental and suprasegmental levels – errors, pauses and vocalic lengthenings – have been conducted in a repetition task with or without imposed gestures to characterize a disfluency, typical of AD, and then observed in link with the production of manual gestures. Results show a significant diminution of the AD participants' fluency: more lexical errors were obtained by the patient group and at the phonetic level among patients with moderate cognitive impairment, as well as numerous silent pauses often preceding or following the production of errors at the segmental level. Moreover, a significant augmentation of suprasegmental disfluencies and phonetic errors is observed in the task with imposed gestures impacting controls and patients' fluency.L'objectif de cette étude est d'analyser et comparer les productions langagières dans leur multimodalité de 10 personnes atteintes de la maladie d'Alzheimer (MA) appariées à 10 contrôles. Différentes mesures aux niveaux segmental et suprasegmental – erreurs, pauses et allongements vocaliques – ont été réalisées dans une tâche de répétition avec ou sans gestes imposés pour caractériser une disfluence, typique de la MA, puis observées en lien avec les gestes manuels produits. Les résultats montrent la diminution significative de la fluence chez les personnes atteintes de la MA, avec davantage d'erreurs produites au niveau lexical par le groupe Patient et au niveau phonétique par les patients au stade modéré de la maladie, ainsi que de nombreuses pauses silencieuses précédant ou suivant souvent les erreurs produites au niveau segmental. De plus, dans la tâche avec gestes imposés, la répétition de ceux-ci a impacté la fluence des groupes Contrôle et Patient avec une augmentation significative des disfluences au niveau suprasegmental et des erreurs phonétiques au niveau segmental

Disfluences dans le vieillissement "normal" et la maladie d'Alzheimer : indices segmentaux, suprasegmentaux et gestuels

International audienceThe aim of the study is to analyze and compare multimodal language productions by 10 persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) matched to 10 controls. First, different measures at the segmental and suprasegmental levels – errors, pauses and vocalic lengthenings – have been conducted in a repetition task with or without imposed gestures to characterize a disfluency, typical of AD, and then observed in link with the production of manual gestures. Results show a significant diminution of the AD participants' fluency: more lexical errors were obtained by the patient group and at the phonetic level among patients with moderate cognitive impairment, as well as numerous silent pauses often preceding or following the production of errors at the segmental level. Moreover, a significant augmentation of suprasegmental disfluencies and phonetic errors is observed in the task with imposed gestures impacting controls and patients' fluency.L'objectif de cette étude est d'analyser et comparer les productions langagières dans leur multimodalité de 10 personnes atteintes de la maladie d'Alzheimer (MA) appariées à 10 contrôles. Différentes mesures aux niveaux segmental et suprasegmental – erreurs, pauses et allongements vocaliques – ont été réalisées dans une tâche de répétition avec ou sans gestes imposés pour caractériser une disfluence, typique de la MA, puis observées en lien avec les gestes manuels produits. Les résultats montrent la diminution significative de la fluence chez les personnes atteintes de la MA, avec davantage d'erreurs produites au niveau lexical par le groupe Patient et au niveau phonétique par les patients au stade modéré de la maladie, ainsi que de nombreuses pauses silencieuses précédant ou suivant souvent les erreurs produites au niveau segmental. De plus, dans la tâche avec gestes imposés, la répétition de ceux-ci a impacté la fluence des groupes Contrôle et Patient avec une augmentation significative des disfluences au niveau suprasegmental et des erreurs phonétiques au niveau segmental

Traitement du figement dans les manuels d’enseignement / apprentissage de FLE pour adultes

Cet article s’intéresse au traitement du figement dans les manuels d’enseignement et d’apprentissage du Français langue étrangère (FLE), à partir d’un corpus de 42 manuels de FLE pour adultes et adolescents de niveaux A1 à C2, comprenant des méthodes générales, des manuels de grammaire, des manuels de vocabulaire et des manuels de français sur objectif spécifique (FOS).Après un rappel des critères de figement d’après l’avancée des recherches actuelles en linguistique, l'article rend compte de quelques travaux qui traitent de l’enseignement/ apprentissage de la phraséologie en FLE et redéfinit des catégories de séquences figées (SF) pertinentes pour l’analyse du corpus.La seconde partie est consacrée à l’analyse des occurrences et du traitement didactique des locutions adverbiales, pragmatèmes, collocations, expressions imagées et proverbes dans les manuels. Nous constatons, d’une part, l’omniprésence de SF favorisée par l’approche communicative et actionnelle, et d’autre part, leur discrimination aléatoire et approximative, le manque d’analyse de leur emploi en contexte et d’activités de reconstitution, la non prise en compte des variations possibles.Compte tenu des résultats de l’analyse, il est proposé quelques pistes didactiques : un code graphique pour indiquer la portée et le degré de figement, le développement d’une compétence active, par l’emploi en contexte notamment, et la réalisation de fiches lexicographiques à visée didactique

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The Effect of a Multifaceted Intervention Including Classroom Education and Bariatric Weight Suit Use on Medical Students' Attitudes toward Patients with Obesity

INTRODUCTION Weight bias refers to negative attitudes toward individuals because of their weight. Evidence-based strategies to successfully reduce weight bias in medical students are lacking. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a multifaceted intervention on medical students' attitudes toward patients with obesity. METHODS Third and fourth year medical students (n = 79), who enrolled in an 8-week graduate course focusing on the various epidemiologic, physiological, and clinical aspects of obesity, including a gamification task with bariatric weight suits (BWSs), were asked to complete the Nutrition, Exercise and Weight Management (NEW) Attitudes Scale questionnaire pre- and post-course. The inclusion period was between September 2018 and June 2021 and covered 4 consecutive groups of students. RESULTS The overall NEW Attitudes Scale scores did not change significantly pre- versus post-intervention (pre-course: 19.59, post-course: 24.21, p value = 0.24). However, the subgroup of 4th year medical students showed a significant improvement in their attitudes (pre-course: 16.4, post-course: 26.16, p value = 0.02). The Thurstone rating of 9 out of 31 individual survey items changed significantly from pre- to post-course with a moderate strength (Cramer's V >0.2), including 5 items showing weight bias reduction. The disagreement with the statement "overweight/obese individuals lack willpower" increased from 37 to 68%. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that in medical students with a low level of weight bias at baseline, a semester course on obesity combined with BWS use affects only a limited number of items of the NEW Attitudes Scale questionnaire. The sensitization of medical students to weight stigma has the potential to improve quality of healthcare for patients with obesity

Human muscular fetal cells: a potential cell source for muscular therapies

Myoblast transfer therapy has been extensively studied for a wide range of clinical applications, such as tissue engineering for muscular loss, cardiac surgery or Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy treatment. However, this approach has been hindered by numerous limitations, including early myoblast death after injection and specific immune response after transplantation with allogenic cells. Different cell sources have been analyzed to overcome some of these limitations. The object of our study was to investigate the growth potential, characterization and integration in vivo of human primary fetal skeletal muscle cells. These data together show the potential for the creation of a cell bank to be used as a cell source for muscle cell therapy and tissue engineering. For this purpose, we developed primary muscular cell cultures from biopsies of human male thigh muscle from a 16-week-old fetus and from donors of 13 and 30years old. We show that fetal myogenic cells can be successfully isolated and expanded in vitro from human fetal muscle biopsies, and that fetal cells have higher growth capacities when compared to young and adult cells. We confirm lineage specificity by comparing fetal muscle cells to fetal skin and bone cells in vitro by immunohistochemistry with desmin and 5.1H11 antibodies. For the feasibility of the cell bank, we ensured that fetal muscle cells retained intrinsic characteristics after 5years cryopreservation. Finally, human fetal muscle cells marked with PKH26 were injected in normal C57BL/6 mice and were found to be present up to 4days. In conclusion we estimate that a human fetal skeletal muscle cell bank can be created for potential muscle cell therapy and tissue engineerin

Neurological disease suspected to be caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus infection in 6 horses in Switzerland.

BACKGROUND Reports on acute tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) infections with signs of neurologic disease in horses are limited. OBJECTIVES To describe the epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory findings of suspected acute TBEV infections in 6 horses. ANIMALS Six horses originating from TBEV endemic regions of Switzerland were presented to equine hospitals with acute onset of neurologic disease between 2011 and 2019. METHODS Retrospective case series. Horses with acute onset of signs of neurologic disease that were subjected to clinical and microbiological examinations to rule out infectious diseases affecting the central nervous system. RESULTS All horses exhibited acute signs of neurologic disease including ataxia and proprioceptive deficits. Horses tested positive for TBEV using virus neutralization test and samples were further tested for TBEV-specific IgM. The presence of TBEV-specific IgM antibodies was confirmed in 5 horses (cases 1-5, Laboratory Unit [LU] values ranging from 30 to 56). One horse (case no. 6) with an LU value just below the test threshold (LU = 22.3) was also included under the hypothesis that the horse was transitioning from acute to chronic infection. All horses originated from areas where humans with confirmed tick-borne encephalitis reported to have been bitten by ticks. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE Acute TBEV infection should be a differential diagnosis in horses with signs of neurologic disease and originating from TBEV endemic areas. The establishment of harmonized diagnostic criteria would help to overcome the diagnostic challenges associated with TBEV and other Flavivirus infections in horses

Neurological disease suspected to be caused by tick‐borne encephalitis virus infection in 6 horses in Switzerland

Background Reports on acute tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) infections with signs of neurologic disease in horses are limited. Objectives To describe the epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory findings of suspected acute TBEV infections in 6 horses. Animals Six horses originating from TBEV endemic regions of Switzerland were presented to equine hospitals with acute onset of neurologic disease between 2011 and 2019. Methods Retrospective case series. Horses with acute onset of signs of neurologic disease that were subjected to clinical and microbiological examinations to rule out infectious diseases affecting the central nervous system. Results All horses exhibited acute signs of neurologic disease including ataxia and proprioceptive deficits. Horses tested positive for TBEV using virus neutralization test and samples were further tested for TBEV-specific IgM. The presence of TBEV-specific IgM antibodies was confirmed in 5 horses (cases 1-5, Laboratory Unit [LU] values ranging from 30 to 56). One horse (case no. 6) with an LU value just below the test threshold (LU = 22.3) was also included under the hypothesis that the horse was transitioning from acute to chronic infection. All horses originated from areas where humans with confirmed tick-borne encephalitis reported to have been bitten by ticks. Conclusions and Clinical Importance Acute TBEV infection should be a differential diagnosis in horses with signs of neurologic disease and originating from TBEV endemic areas. The establishment of harmonized diagnostic criteria would help to overcome the diagnostic challenges associated with TBEV and other Flavivirus infections in horses